Dr. Thomas Edward Militello was one of the first, if not the first person to attempt to
organize Italian Genealogy Search.

His efforts have resulted in a resounding success, which in general is remarkable, but with a group of Italians is Astounding!! [;-)

POINTERS (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together) now has 28 chapters across the United States with 4761 members.

Dr. Militello has also spawned a Internet List Serv version of his organization with over 2000 members called PIE (Pointers In Email).

The BAD News is: Disappointingly and even strange to me, most of the members, or perhaps only the most vociferous or vocal of the membership, do not seem to be interested in anything other than tracing lineage, and could not be less interested in the History or Culture of their ancestors, or even current affairs in Italy or Italiana Americana. :(

This results in only Names, and Dates. It gives me perhaps the misconception that they are ALL hoping to eventually find "Nobility" in their background. :)

The GOOD News is:that SO many people are interested in their Italian lineage, (with names that give NO hint of such), AND that a number of PIE members are valued subscribers to this Report, including Dr. Militello :)
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A Brief History of POINT
by Thomas Edward Militello, MD (POINTer #1)

For some years, without much success, I had periodically tried to put my family tree down on paper. Then, in 1986, I purchased a computer genealogy program called Family Roots, which allowed me to organize and work with the material I had collected. It was at this time that the genealogy bug really bit me. However, once I had entered the data on my living (and a few deceased) close relatives, I had no idea how to progress further, especially when it came to getting information on the
family beginnings in Italy.

I learned about Genealogy Helper (which is no longer published) from a friend, but the copy I saw had virtually nothing in it about Italian genealogy.

Visits to three genealogy societies in the Southern California area revealed that
not one of their members was doing Italian genealogy at that time (1987).

As a way to get help for my own genealogy research, early in 1987, I wrote to Genealogy Helper and a few other genealogy publications, announcing the formation of POINT (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together), and by June, the project was underway.

I had envisioned the project only as a data base of Italian surnames, but many people sent tidbits of information about doing Italian genealogy along with their surnames. I put these items into a tiny newsletter called POINTers and sent it free to anyone who wrote to POINT. This continued for about six months and then, in January, 1988, POINTers became a quarterly journal, available only to paid members of POINT.

As of December 31, 2002, POINT had 4761 members, of which 1417 were active;
there were over 33,800 surnames in the POINT Italian Surname Data Base (almost
23,000 from currently active members) and those surnames originated in over 3450 Italian cities and towns.

POINT received major publicity and a subsequent growth spurt on October 6,1988 when Myra Vanderpool Gormley, in conjunction with Columbus Day, devoted her
entire nationally syndicated genealogy column to POINT. Many people who do not usually read genealogy publications learned of POINT through Myra's column.

At about this same time, the Los Angeles Public Library became the first of many libraries and institutions to become Supporting Members of POINT.

Also in October, 1988, we had the first success of cousins who found each other through POINT.

Almost from the beginning, we have had members from outside the United States. Canada has been the most prominent of these, but our international membership has included Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, England, France, Guam, Japan, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Spain Switzerland and Uruguay.

>From the beginning, our journal, POINTers, has been an instrument of communication between our members, POINTers, via letters sent to POINT.

The design of the cover of POINTers has continued to evolve over the years with a major change coming with the Spring, 1992 issue as we went to a three-color cover with a different family photo on each cover. All POINTers are urged to send original family photos to POINT for consideration for use on the cover of POINTers. Photos sent to POINT will not be returned.

In 1992, the first POINTers In Person chapter was formed in Chicago as a way  for POINTers (and others) to meet face-to-face to discuss all matters of interest to those of Italian heritage. There are now 28 chapters across the United States.

In October, 1998, POINT made Italian genealogical history with its First National Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Subsequent conferences have been held in Austin, TX (October, 2000) and Salt Lake City, UT (October, 2002). The Fourth Biennial POINT National Conference will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, in October, 2004.

POINT continues to grow as word is spread by genealogy societies and their newsletters, Italian organizations and their publications, libraries (including the Library of Congress), the Internet, including PIE and our own POINT Website, and by word of mouth.

What the future holds from this time forward, we can not even imagine, considering our expectations when we began this project over 17 years ago.

Cordiali saluti,
Thomas Edward Militello, MD (POINTer #1)

Founder of POINT (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together)
Editor of POINTers (THE American Journal of Italian Genealogy)

Since 1987
Telephone:      702 - 257 - 6628
Postal address:    Box 14966, Las Vegas, NV 89114 - 4966
E-Mail address: DrTom@point-pointers.net
Homepage address: http://www.point-pointers.net

If you missed our POINT National Conference in Salt Lake City in 2002, make your plans now to attend the Fourth Biennial POINT National Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, October 7-9, 2004.

If you were at the last one, you know you will not want to miss the next one.

POINT-Pursuing Our Italian Names Together
http://www.point-pointers.net/
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